How to Build a Time Machine follows two men as they set out on a journey to build their own time machines. Rob Niosi is a stop motion animator who has spent the last 13 years obsessively constructing a full-scale replica of the time machine prop from the 1960 adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. It is his attempt to recapture the memory of seeing the film in theatres with his father.
Dr. Ron Mallett is a theoretical physicist whose story begins with a tragedy. He was only 10 years old when his father died suddenly of a heart attack. Distraught, he sought solace in science-fiction. After reading The Time Machine, Ron dedicated his life to studying physics. He has since become a professor at the University of Connecticut and is now working on building a real time machine in the hopes that he might go back in time to save his father's life.
Through these stories, we will investigate our fascination with time travel and attempt to figure out whats so appealing about reliving the past and foreseeing the future. We will also look at the power of cinema and the ways in which science fiction storytelling has inspired real life scientific breakthroughs.